Comments

Like the IPCC/UN political agenda of trying to Brainwash, bamboozle and scare the gullible public to believe CO2 drives the climate hence give credence to implement Agenda 21 and cull the masses - so the ruling classes can take over the Earth. It's also far too easy to pick apart Chris Grayling's fascist agenda and savage his totalitarian NWO politics designed to make the poor train passengers pay more for expanding Bransons Souters et al bank balances as well. Indeed one could easily run away withe the idea to become shareholders and adopt a "if we cant beat them join them attitude". Alas however our bent slithering two faced politicians have us over a barrel! And as Natalie Bennett said to us at PO 2.0 "until we get PR" and get rid of our bent politicians, we can't do JS. So here's a happy new year to all who like myself hope that the public WAKES UP to the reality of WTF is really going on and takes control.

A firm called Newcross Healthcare Solutions (bad enough using such a cynical acronym) is making millions of pounds and paying its director similar annual bonuses. Why can't the real NHS be doing the same work whilst not having to make a profit? This company is paying crazily low wages so that a handful of shareholders can make money out of other folks' misfortunes.

Other European countries are at different stages of privatisation (or even bringing things back in-house). It is essential to connect with campaigns (local and national) in other European countries. We can learn a lot from each other!

I am particularly concerned about the creeping privatisation of the NHS even though I live in Scotland. After Brexit I worry that the price of an American (USA) trade deal may mean that the NHS would be opened up to privatisation by commercial healthcare firms from the USA. There is no doubt that these firms would lead to a destruction of the founding ethos of the NHS that it be free at the point of delivery and that treatment be based on the clinical need not the ability to pay. The USA spends about double the UK per capita but anybody who has been sick there knows how hard it is to get appropriate healthcare. This is due to a large slice of the funding being siphoned of to fuel the profits of these firms. Commercial healthcare leads to bad medicine with unnecessary treatment being given on the basis of their ability to pay. I could write about the unnecessary tonsilectomies in the USA and many other examples of the way that commercial medicine corrupts healthcare.

The world is a business. Corporates are taking over, money and greed is everywhere and means everything to the elites. Enough is never enough,self interest and making profit is their goal while society and the poor suffer for it. The capitalist system is not broken it was designed that way it’s working perfectly for them. It’s time to make huge changes to stop corporates controlling our future.

The NHS literally saved my life and continues to support me. I cannot believe that a morally wrong privatised health service would have been willing to spend thousands on a common or garden patient, financially, as me. Services are just that. It is morally repugnant and, frankly, evil that a few monied interests should make life or death decisions dependent on personal profit. Much the same argument, though not quite as emotive or perhaps extreme, could be extended to other threatened services...

RE NHS I am having to suffer with re-occuring skin cancer it is disfiguring but not the fatal kind. My recent experience at my local Hospital was a proper eye opener. I saw the consultant surgeon,who said I would have a 6 month wait for surgery, but if I went private he could see me in a matter of weeks. This is against everything I STAND FOR,SO POLITELY DECLINED HIS REQUEST. However how many of THE FEW jump in front of THE MANY without any thought.

The scandal of local councils selling off what does not belong to them has to be stopped. Councils have a very skewed view of what they're actually in office for. They do not seem to understand that they do not actually own anything; they hold public assets in trust for future generations. It is more than time that the creeping privatisation and take-over of public assets is stopped in its tracks. That includes by the way the use of public space for private, money-making ventures, resulting in the exclusion of council tax payers from areas of public parks. It also includes the attempted development on public spaces. We are currently fighting the removal of the last vestiges of the old Selborne Park in Walthamstow - a shopping mall took a huge chunk of it, and now the mall owners want to take even more for more retail space and tower blocks.

Like all our other essential utilities and strategic services the General Public should be given the right to own, run, manage and foster these for the betterment of society and future generations. Historical and current evidence proves that the private sector mavericks spivs and our corrupt and inept politicians, are only making the divide in society worse i.e. make the rich richer and the poor poorer. Moreover, as Britain muddles its way in a changing World devoid of its Pink Empire and its politicians who have indeed lost their way, one cannot hide from the fact that a large proportion of them support the ideology of a NWO: Where the UN corrupts the true climate change science, builds its FEMA camps and has Agenda 21 ready to solve the problem of decent from the ranks. Therefore, given the extreme nature of whats really happening the General Public needs to take control.

Like all our other essential utilities and strategic services the General Public should be given the right to own, run, manage and foster these for the betterment of society and future generations. Historical and current evidence proves that the private sector mavericks spivs and corrupt and inept politicians, are only making the divide in society worse i.e. make the rich richer and the poor poorer. Moreover, as Britain muddles its way in a changing World devoid of its Pink Empire and its politicians who have indeed lost their way, one cannot hide from the fact that a large proportion of them support the ideology of a NWO: Where the UN corrupts the true science, builds its FEMA camps and has Agenda 21 ready to solve the problem of decent from the ranks. Therefore, given the extreme nature of whats really happening the General Public needs to take control.

Is there any way to find out exactly how much has been paid in dividends to shareholders during all the years and for all the companies that have been privatised? If this can be published it would show how much privatisation has cost this country.

Is'nt it funny how nationalised properties i.e water and electricity etc, never made money when it was nationalised yet has made money when it became privately owned.With the correct people running these services money could be made for the country.

I would like democratic public ownership to be the opposite of the old 'nationalisations' - which it could be argued were top down, distant, too bureaucratic and usually had the same bosses in control with the community and staff having little say. So perhaps the regional boards could be elected by the community they serve OMOV and a percentage of board places are set for staff/trade unionist reps which equally should be elected by staff/trade union members OMOV. Each board should rotate the venues of meetings which should be open to members of the public and these should be listening exercises where the community can offer ideas to be explored. Yes we need to end the waste from leaks, help the poor re water bills, and the interesting ideas about having water fountains in town/village/city centres/pubs plus in offering free hot and cold water to the homeless but where possible I would also like to see more areas owned publicly by a water authority to be opened up to the public. Their should be an annual meting of the board and again the public/customers could submit their ideas although in practice we would all be customer/owners. Let loads of ideas flow!

Privatisation of public services was, and, remains a con trick. When people bought shares in services they already owned. Imagine someone knocking on your door offering to sell you your own car. People who bought shares should be ashamed of their stupidity and greed

This is a key part missing on the buses strategy and that is the use of bus stations, public buildings and multi-storey car parks, owned by councils to provide the solar pv needed to charge electic buses. Charging buses up on cheap overnight electricity for wind and selling much of the solar pv back during peak demand should be a net positive to facilitate a transition to electric transport. ( The use of solar pv in the daytime reduces the exorbitant subsidy paid to gas fired power stations).

Charging council, or other public service owned electric vehicles further reduces the need for individual ownership of cars. (80% of which are on some sort of lease hire / hire purchase model)

That should go a little way to helping councils develop local ownership.

Charge points at bus stations, schools, colleges, hospitals, council buildings and near multistorey car parks would permit husge savings on fuel and reduce air pollution. (How much do the NHS services pay for taxi services to and from hospital?)

The UK government has been taken to the courts three times on their failure to address air pollution. Providing electric buses to take over the school run would help reduce the exposure of children to air pollution.

Staggering school runs for example at 8:30 and 9:00 would ensure more impact could be made on air pollution with fewer buses at least initially.

Air pollution aggravates asthma and causes poor lung development.

In older people air pollution increases the risk of cardio-vascular problems such as hearth attacks and strokes and raises the risk of asthma attacks.

The failure to deal with air pollution is not only a climate and health problem it is also an occupational health problem. In other words it should be very much in the interest of the unions to raise these issues.

There’s a mountain of reasons why privatisation can’t work and why the Government admitted in 1865 that Nationalisation was an option to homogenise the disorderly rail systems. But having worked for BR, SAR and the NRZ as a Traction and Rolling Stock Engineer and having witnessed rail travel here in the late 50’s when it was cheaper and faster than bus car or truck. And in times of ticket sales exceeding seating capacity, the station pilot would simply shunt on two or more coaches to accommodate this demand on the 8:30 (to wherever) and a standby locomotive would double head the train away at 8:30 – and all this was done with no computers or other digital coms! Had BR been given a free reign and the politicians supported our State Run Railway, we would have gold plated rails and executive class travel for all on TGV style trains and propped up the NHS to boot with the revenues BR had!

It’s a similar situation in Germany and France btw, although the general public in these countries are now being taken for a ride too! But sadly for us the die was cast in 1955 with the modernisation policy the corrupt Tory Government devised. Its aim was simple: increase road use and disseminate rail! Why? Because oil and Natural Gas was coming on tap and society was being emancipated form totalitarian rule to; perceived democracy freedom and a better life.

So much so that in the blink of an eye our railway system was more than halved and given to Souter Branson et al for free by their buddy Tory B. Thus Public Ownership and operational control is not only pragmatic, it’s the only option we have to restore common sense for the benefit of the many and to give our children the railway we paid for.

Thank you for your message. Great to hear you want some stickers. We don't actually have any at the moment i'm afraid, but we are working on opening a shop online soon which you will be able to get these sorts of resources from as well as t-shirts.

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The choice is simple; Either keep believing the state propaganda and swallow the crap meted out by our undemocratically elected politicians and their system of corrupt governance; watching our public utilities get worse, become more unaffordable and let our children become poorer. As they will saddle generations for thousands of years to pay for the waste, poisoning, or the fallout from the mass destruction of nuclear fission, in a World stripped of oil, gas, coal and wood. Our stand up, unite and take Public Control of our strategic services and give our children a sustainable World to inherit!

So, count me in to help run our strategic utilities! But I’d suggest we do it on a pro rata basis, i.e. relative to earnings/taxation/ability. I’d lay odds on that within a year the greedy anti socialists will come running in their droves to join us as they desert the mirage of a their God “Dream”! As that’s all it is - unless one’s born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth, or they steel it from the poor, infirmed and the many who are frightened to fight back, albeit for good reason – they won’t divvy out their bullets and WMD’s are a No No too!

We are a Socialist country. That means we are people of interlinked communities. We are families and friends that help and support each other. What we do together has nothing to do with the American dream of monetary gain. We pool our resources and put them to the use of all. Big business or private companies, are built on the ideal of gain and profit by subscription.

The NHS, is about health, from birth to death. Its funding is from taxation and investment, and from public donations. It is not a business, it is more than that. It is unique and British and Ubique in our society of British values. Capitalist politicians have tainted and destroyed it by their meddling,.

Hi. It is important that the NHS, is public, because it belongs to everyone in the UK. It is there, not to be interfered with, to make money, by zelots and capitalists. It is a Social Service, not a money bandwagon.

Privatisation has seen the worsening of public services and since the Tory government cuts it has become even worse because a profit must be made. Time to take them back, provide a good service and give employees decent wages and employment rights.

https://www.ipevents.net/healthinvestorawards/ The Presidents' Ball for those looking to privatise the NHS. This year multiple organisations will be protesting outside this event with news agencies covering the protest

Transfers to private ownership are generally sold to public authorities as being a more cost effective and efficient way of running services. To reinforce the so called benefits the procurement usually show a cost saving on existing costs which eventually secures the total disruption of shutting down the well tried existing services to prevent reinstatement and then the poor and substandard services start. This disaster decision inevitably culminating in not having enough profit to pay for fat cat useless directors and of course the shareholders cut and the inevitable walk away or worse begging letter under blackmail circumstances of walking away leaving the usual mess to clear up. This is where the NHS is heading under Hunts so called privatised leadership and should be stopped before to late......but greed of course will win through

One is that it TAKES AWAY THE GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSIBILITY for the public's health,

and the other one is that it requires the NHS TO PUT EVERY CONTRACT OUT TO TENDER !

The former enables PRIVATISATION to occur. AND the outcome of that is that some of the money that the NHS would use for clinical work then goes to Private Company Executives and Shareholders, ie the NHS funding is not what we are led to understand.

For example consider an NHS annual budget of £120 billion that is 50% privatised and that the private ‘health’ companies divert 40% of the contract to Executives/Shareholders. The Nett Effect is that £24 billion of NHS annual budget does not go into clinical work! We can then say that the REAL NHS (clinical) annual budget is only £96 billion NOT £120 billion. £96 billion compares very poorly with THE ANNUAL HEALTH BUDGET of equivalent countries !

The latter, ie our NHS tendering for work previously automatically done in-house, has been calculated as causing an admin cost of anything from £4.7bn to £9.7bn. That money is lost from the NHS clinical budget!

No wonder the NHS has problems, apart from top management which seems incompetent & overpaid AND in place to aid the government’s undermining of OUR NHS .

Nationalised industries are run not for the benefit of consumers of those services but for the benefit of the inevitably highly unionised work forces that end up in charge due to the pressure on the government in power. Train tickets are expensive but mass transport systems are and subsidies to the trains in the UK are the lowest in Europe i.e those who use a service pay for most of it, shock horror.

People talk of nationalisation putting power back in the hands of 'the people' and by this they mean the unions and the government, with the latter ending up running it for the benefit of the former and not the consumer. People forget how shit and unsafe train services were under BR, just like how they quite often forget how the NHS regularly scores bottom of the table in Commonwealth Fund on comparative health outcomes- http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/files/publications/fund-report/2017/jul/schneider_mirror_mirror_2017.pdf, page 5, exhibit 2.

I've never thought privatisation was a sensible idea. It subscribes to the dumbest of dogmas. But I would value seeing a costed way back. Handing natural monopolies to the private sector has denuded public authorities of expertise and capital investment, making privatisation very much a one way street - an urgent reason to do no more of it.

And one more comment. It's easy to see what has to be done; remember - people have to do it. When I look at our current crop of politicians, I struggle to discover anyone above mediocre. Not a statesman in sight. Do we really want the people who are making such a Horlicks of Brexit (or their adversaries) to render our services completely FUBAR?

Some one needs to explain to me. We own it ? public ownership ? What does that mean in practice? If we all had shares or it was a co-operative I could understand it. But public ownership just seems to mean that government of the day is in charge. And if they suddenly find they don't have the cash for this or that they could close it down and where would we be ? I would not trust the government to organise a bun fight in a bakery How can we expect them to organise hundreds and hundreds of public services and not lose money hand over fist - or seriously lower standards ?

Chris Grayling - Like most current MPs this guy has no clue whatsoever what he is doing, I have grand kids with more intelligence than this. One of the richest men in the world who spends a fortune trying to find God in space, and this silly little individual wants to bail him out?? I really wonder what planet some of these people come from. The point is our governing system is totally broken and needs a complete re-think. We squander 12 billion a year on global aid ( which is ring fenced ) and we are in such a mess. No words to explain it.

I know it's hard to think back all those years to Beaching closing the majority of Railway Stations and Lines, but, is this why we're going through this now, because some toffee nosed privateer is wanting to cash in on our monies again. The smile on Branson's face is obvious to me, he's making it big business. I'm sorry to say, but, I have a virgin media email address and it kills me to have it. He cashed in on our area because we can't receive a decent digital or terrestrial signal for media. So in a way my contact with 'WE OWN IT' is his own doing.. I love it! Stop the money grabber, Please!!

I think it is scandalous that we allow private enterprise to take over or railways which we have developed and built over many years. These private companies make many promises only to break them and leave us funding the bill. Bring the railways back into public hands where we have control and benefit fully.

I work for RM and the atmosphere amongst the workforce is toxic.Privatisation has destroyed a brilliant public service.It started with the cut price sell off where the spivs and speculators made millions overnight and continues with the selling off of all the valuable property assets to line the pockets of the wealthy.

The workload imposed on staff now would test an athlete, terms and conditions are under severe attack and the service quality has reduced significantly, Xmas mail failing for the first time in my memory this year.

The few shares we were given in an attempt to pacify us are nothing compared to the loss of job satisfaction and worsening working conditions.

From the first to the most recent the effects of privatisation are the same and I can't think of one which wouldn't be better back in the public sector.

I work for RM and the atmosphere amongst the workforce is toxic.Privatisation has destroyed a brilliant public service.It started with the cut price sell off where the spivs and speculators made millions overnight and continues with the selling off of all the valuable property assets to line the pockets of the wealthy.

The workload imposed on staff now would test an athlete, terms and conditions are under severe attack and the service quality has reduced significantly, Xmas mail failing for the first time in my memory this year.

The few shares we were given in an attempt to pacify us are nothing compared to the loss of job satisfaction and worsening working conditions.

From the first to the most recent the effects of privatisation are the same and I can't think of one which wouldn't be better back in the public sector.

The whole essence of the We Own It Campaign is something I've been telling friends, colleagues and family Members about for years. Before I even knew about We Own It! It's so positive to find out that an intelligently run organisation exists that intelligently and objectively opposes the running of vital public services for private shareholders and directors personal gain. I have said for years that you cannot expect decent re-investment and higher standards of service when profit making is the sole interest of those who have shares in the service, and this has proven to be true time and time again. I have worked for the NHS for nearly twenty years and seen our estates and facilities services, occupational health department and procurement services all fall into the hands of privately run and owned companies with the assurance that they will be more efficiently run and better service provided. My experience is that they have always cost the NHS more money and Services are not as good to put it mildly. We had a patient couch in one of our clinics fail recently. When we used our own estates department of NHS employees this would have been remedied almost immediately, now we use Avensis this couch took over 3 months to fix, reducing our patient contacts by a third in our 3 chair clinic and was only eventually fixed after tens of phone calls to chase the job up. No apology was received from said company either.

Thank you for an amazing speech last night at the Labour Rally in West Bromwich. It was so great to see a young woman with so much passion and talking complete sense. I just hope we can make the changes

Hi I have followed your work for nearly 2 years, I am a great believer in nationalized industries. As a 70 year old I can remember when this country was properly run, for the good of the people., NOT FOR THE GOOD OF THE DIRTY CAPITALIST WITH THERE SNOUTS IN THE TROUGH. Thatcherism was a crime against the people of this country as was membership of EEC and later the EU. All Industries in the Public domain in in 11950 should be returned their without payment.

I came across your post about Mike Dwan, the man who was reported to have amassed a personal wealth of over £75 Million from PFI and the many schemes sucking funds from what should be spent on state schools directly, I have come across Mr Dwan around 2007/8 he is a controlling man with the only thought on his mind of what’s in it for him.

I made a grave error and sent my children to the prep school in Windermere before Mr Dwan moved from Manchester to Windermere. He brought his children to the prep school while I was working free of charge to design and delivery the pod classroom project at the prep school to get some publicity for the architectural project , I donated one pod classroom to the school: My regret is I didn’t donate that pod to a state school and not Windermere school, I spent nearly a year offering my services free to get the project off the ground. A few months after the project was due to complete Mr Dwan had wormed his way onto the board of Governors within months of him arriving at the school. He soon had arranged a meeting with myself to inform me he was now in control of the project I designed. Behold within weeks he had his own contractors installing the foundations sucking out funds from the project. I completed the project just; by sticking to my guns and holding Mr Dwan over a barrel with the building Certificate as I had applied for the permission in my name, he had no choice but to allow me to complete the project. Needless to say 2 weeks after the project completed Mr Dwan and his followers made sure my children wouldn’t be able stay at the school as we had purchased items including furniture out of my own pocket and he wouldn’t approved the repayment and we couldn’t afford to stay. The school project featured on Grand designs. My children went on to get a good state school education. I fully intend to recover my time spent on Windermere School project and recover the donated pod building.

Access to legal help is denied in civil cases because the fees are punitive: £300 plus an hour. Public ownership options:- 1)Legal aid for those below an income level of,say £80,000, should be provided by lawyers, funded from their charges to rich clients. 2) Punitive taxes on legal fees over an affordable amount, say £50 per hour, would drive down the costs. 3). Like care, legal advice and help should be funded from taxation and fees controlled by the state. There would be no opting-out provision

Really pleased to have found your campaign and I wish you every success. Having supported someone who had home and then residential care over a ten year period I have witnessed at first hand the failings in the Adult Social Care set up. The care workers are exploited and the elderly vulnerable people are not getting the support they need. The only ones doing well out of the system are the overpaid bureaucrats in local authorities and the private care companies. Adult Social Care needs to be publicly funded and run as it was back in the time before privatisation.

Governments need to understand the public have less and less me,me,me thinking....I recently found out there are over 200 MP's in parliament and more in the House of Lords with their fingers in private/big pharma pies.

I listened to the Radio 4 interview; the interviewer was provocative in suggesting you want to punish shareholders and I think you kept your cool really nicely.I thought my personal example might be worth recounting. It represents beautifully the issue of carefully analysing what the utilities may be handing back to the Government if your cause succeeds. In fact it raises the spectre that the shareholders may WANT to hand the utilities back because they have a major debt issue on the horizon. Certainly in my personal case; here's how it goes...

I am fortunate to live on a smallholding alongside a public reservoir in Cornwall. That reservoir was built in 1941 for the local town (Falmouth) water supply.It was built by compulsory purchase of farmland and the terms of the purchase included an obligation to erect and maintain a stockproof perimeter fence where no natural boundary existed.That obligation was on the Town Council and "its successors in title". Forever!(in perpetuity).

I have lived here 25+years. Originally South West Water employed a resident warden for this and 2 neighbouring reservoirs. He lived in a cottage owned by the company at the edge of the reservoir.Our fence - like literally tens-if not hundreds- of miles of fencing around South West reservoirs is concrete posts with chainlink fence strung tight between. He used to mow and strim and tighten up 3 times a year.With privatisation approximately 20 years ago he retired(maybe offered /enforced redundancy -I do not know). His cottage was auctioned off to a private buyer. Interestingly a levy was added to all of our water bills in the South West for "public recreation provision". This was managed by the creation of South West Lakes CHARITABLE Trust whose remit I now know also included maintainence of the Estates. The Trust is funded by South West Water and employs many volunteers. I do not claim to understand the flow of money but what I do know is that either the Trust or South West Water came and planted trees all around the reservoir approx 15 years ago. A huge EU subsidy was claimed. And that was the last we ever saw of anybody!

I continued to manage my pastureland on my side of the fence but finally 2 years ago the blackthorn growth on the public side started to pull the fence off its top straining wire. My fields were no longer stockproof. I was bounced around between South West Lakes Trust and a contractor who it transpires is a private self- employed person working to a budget handed down by South West Lakes Trust. He came within a whisker of putting in a fence with scaffold poles hammered into the ground stating he could not get concrete posts. In fairness waht he meant was he could't get them within the constraints of the budget handed down by the S W Lakes Trust.In frustration ( a member of the public walking their dog kindly came up one day to say one of our stock was grazing under the top strainer wire- 2 feet in my field 2 feet on the reservoir land-) I demanded to speak to a lawyer at South West Water.Basically I felt I was being messed around.She rang me back within an hour and had checked her legal details and said that the obligation was on her company to maintain a 5 foot high stockproof stone hedge.Still nothing was done but she authorised payment of the cost of my repairing the hole- 35 pounds for a man with a chainsaw . I supplied some wire free of charge.

I eventually sought legal advice. My solicitor checked our Deeds at the bank and said it was clear; the obligation was for the Water Authority and their successors in title to do as the lawyer had suggested. I spoke to the Chief Exec S W Lakes Trust.He sent his Estates manager who said they couldn't afford concrete posts and chainlink let alone a hugely expensive stone hedge. I pointed out that they had saved 20 years of maintenence costs and this was a chicken coming home to roost.I said the chainlink fence had been fine and if it had been maintained would still be.I would accept a new concrete posts/ chainlink fence.

And that is what is soon to be erected.

This scenario will be repeated across many miles of reservoir fencing. It is a huge capital expense looming on the horizon.Especially if - subsequent to the Brexit process- farmers are encouraged to restock their fields.Let's hope that it is taken into account literally by anybody valuing the Water companies in the event of a Government buyback.